Day 172 of reading an article on Očhéthi Šakówiŋ Studies everyday:

Steven Sabol, “Comparing American and Russian Internal Colonization: The ‘Touch of Civilisation’ on the Sioux and Kazakhs.” Western Historical Quarterly 43, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 29-51.

A fascinating article comparing and contrasting Russian tsarist colonialism of the Kazakhs on the Steppes of central Asia and American colonialism with the Očhéthi Šakówiŋ in the 19th century. While Russian and American empires were vastly different, their outcomes were similar.

Both countries employed a similar set of policies: militarized violence, allotment, and assimilation. Russia never made treaties with the Indigenous nations it conquered and had few qualms or moral conundrums about simply taking land.

Kazakhs were never forced onto reservations, but forced into administrative districts where they were allotted individual lands. The restrictive nature of these districts was similar to 19th century American reservation system and allotment had the same result in both countries.

Unlike the US, Russia discouraged missionization of the Muslim Kazakhs. They hoped to gain Muslims intermediaries to work on behalf of the empire. But by the 1880s, anti-Muslim sentiment led to Christian missionization, which was largely unsuccessful.

The author argues that we need comparative work like this so that we don’t fall into the trap of thinking that American colonialism was unique. Russia & US are often perceived as different, because of their continental empires—perceived as expansionist rather than colonial powers

The 19th century colonialism of Russia and the US are not different than European colonialism in Africa or other parts of the world. He suggests that Russia and the US were just as much colonial powers as Britain or France or others with their overseas colonies. A great article.